Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/296

 they will crown you, they will flatter you, till you will no more remember Maremma than you think now of the sand that clung to your feet yesterday as you came from the sea'

'I shall never go; therefore shall I never forget,' she said simply, unmoved by the visions that were framed in his words.

She was sorry he understood so little; he seemed to her to speak foolishly and thanklessly.

'Have I once failed him?' she thought. 'Have I once tired, that he thinks me so poor a thing?'

'Why should you not go?' he said obstinately. 'Why should you stay?'

'Why does the snipe stay in her reeds, and the mountain-dove cling to her rock?'

He was silent awhile. Then he rose and pushed the clay aside, and came nearer to her.

'The snipe has her mate and the rock-dove too,' he said with a soft murmur of his voice. 'But you—you do not love me, though you befriend me so.'

A troubled look came into her eyes, and she left off her spinning.

'You love the woman in Mantua,' she